Government got out of the way of business. Regulatory oversight was light to non-existent and the cry for "let business be business" was heeded by successive administrations of both parties.

NOW THEY WANT GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION AND YOUR MONEY.

Just say "no". Loudly and often.

The financial reckoning is coming, no matter what is done about the so-called bailout. What we're arguing about here is who pays. Wall Street would like you to. And your kids. And your grandkids.

I'd like Wall Street to pay....

And my grandkid's kids assuming this place doesn't blow up before then.

Once they fire off that big atom smasher, we won't have to worry about Wall Street.

The way I see, the big black hole is just looming. The $700B is but a bribe to keep it away a few extra months. In essence, we'll be in dire economic conditions with an additional $700B racked up in debt. At least the people who put us here will be living high on thier wealth while the rest of us suffer.

On a side note, anyone have a DIY set of plans for a guillatine? Halloween is just around the corner and all....

Dang Mutt. You're more pessimistic than I am. What happened?

What was that movie a couple of years ago about this. Fun with Dick and Jane. When they find the SOB that sank the company and he was arrested.

Also why is ther not more of this? It was big new in Columbus.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2006/05/23/20060523-A1-00.html

He woke up, smelled the coffee, and watched the rats escaping with all the cheese.

Yeah pretty much. Woke up, stepped in a big pile of reality, and can't get the stink off my shoes.

I have to admit though, I've taken a play from thier rule book. Today at lunch, I gathered up as many credit card apps as I could find. I filled them all out, probably a dozen or so. The current accounts I have and the foolish ones that approve me, will soon find maxed cash advances and some pretty large expenditures relating to Mutt-utopia infrastructure. Then I shall declare bankruptcy and cancel my phone.
BofA is buying me a tractor.
Citi will be splurging for barn materials.
Chase probably doesn't know they're footing the bill to stock my pantry.

Yep, I plan to get my share of that $700B back on the front end...

Wise decision?

Why start now??

Go Mutt, Go Mutt, GO, GO...

As I see it, we do not have much choice but to save the sheep that would be burned and hope that we can let a few of the porkers fry. The problem is that this is not the first time we have bailed out the financial industry. Remember when we had to bail out New York because they had been bankrupted by union demands? And then Marion Barry, that model citizen, made us bail out D.C. The Reagan bailout of Chrysler may have been the only good bailout, but then we bailed out Citibank, C-M and BOA because they gave billions to Latin American governments that would not repay them. If my timeline is correct, Clinton bailed out Goldman-Sachs and others during the Mexico-IMF fiasco. The worse part is that when we bailed out many of the nations like Mexico, Thailand, and Korea, we devalued the wages of those countries, which made their products cheaper to buy. That put a lot of Americans out of work when industry moved overseas.

When we bailed out Mexico, Florida tomato growers were wiped out, Ford and Delphi move their plants to Mexico, as did many textile companies. It is that bailout that was ultimately responsible for the trade deficit that is hurting us now.

The public fails to realize that analogy of the butterfly in Japan creating a hurricane in Florida is true. The issue is what other factors come into play, and over how long of a timeline. Some things do not affect our lives until decades later. Jimmy Carter's presidency is primarily responsible for the problems we have with the Taliban and Al Queda today, yet it happened so long ago, the public scoffs.

Does it matter?
If we make wise decisions we pay the price of not living as well as
Those who make poor decisions who have the government to bail them out.

I see. So then we should all go rack up debt and file bankruptcy?

Is it really bankruptcy if someone ends up paying for it anyway??

In my household, I am too large to fail, so the gov't should bail me right?